Bone App the Teeth
by SuperSarcosmic
Summary: "State the motto: 'Ghosts are friends, not food.'" "Other than you being our friend, Danny, I'd argue they're neither." / / After a paranormal accident, Danny Fenton ends up with more on his plate than just a rough high school life. With an otherworldly hunger gnawing away at his very being, the young wallflower's search for a cure begins. (Ghost hunger AU. Concrit encouraged.)
1. Suspended Animation

**FOREWORD**

 _Heyo! This is my first real fic, I've mostly just dabbled in drabble and comics before. All the art is by me; reading this on AO3 or Wattpad is recommended if you want to actually see the cover/eventual other art, since FFN isn't media-friendly._

 **Constructive criticism and corrections are encouraged.** _As you find them,_ please _call me out on every typo, wonky wording/punctuation, factual inaccuracy, illogical or too-OOC weirdness, and plot hole, because every contribution makes the story stronger and more enjoyable for you to read. Also,_ **betas** _would be_ really _appreciated._

 _Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy my darker and edgier™ take on Danny Phantom!_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1**

 **Suspended Animation**

A family basement is not typically used as a government-sanctioned laboratory.

Despite this, in an otherwise largely unremarkable city nestled in the central United States, a spacious laboratory sprawled under the home of a fanatical scientist duo, dedicated to the study and development of weapons against the paranormal. It was within this lab that the acrid smells of burned flesh and something peculiar and sour invaded the air, an unappetizing omen of the winds of change headed for the humble city of Amity Park.

As the smoke and odors cleared through the industrial vents of the coldly lit room, a thin figure stirred on the floor.

"Always be careful around our ghost-hunting equipment, Danny," echoed the voices of the boy's parents in his pounding head, their warning competing for his focus against the buzzing in his head. He unseeingly blinked awake, trying to get a grip on what had just happened, thoughts coming in scattered fragments.

His house. His friends. A portal. Curiosity. And... something happened. Something hurt. No, everything hurt.

He closed his bleary eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to get his thoughts in order faster. Scenes floated around in his head, their chronology falling into place as his mind cleared up and the ringing started to fade.

The "portal between dimensions," his parents' magnum opus, stood out at the forefront of his memory. Seemingly little more than a bus-sized hexagonal tunnel embedded in the furthest wall of their lab, it was briefly abandoned in frustration after failing to engage. Then he and his best friends, Tucker and Sam, had taken the opportunity to sneak into the lab to investigate, curious what had happened. Caution made Danny put on the custom hazmat suit from his parents before he walked into the dark tunnel, but too preoccupied with fantasies of the other world where ghosts supposedly lived, he'd absently reached out to touch the side of the tunnel - and felt a large button depress.

Before he could react, a huge flash of light seared the darkness and swallowed him, bringing with it an immense spasm of pain that coursed through his paralyzed body for what must have been forever, yet in actuality stopped as quickly as it had begun.

And now, he was facedown on the cold, hard floor.

His friends screamed his name as they ran to him, crumpled just beyond the now ominously glowing portal. Tucker gingerly rolled him over, then moved aside for Sam to check for signs of life. Their hearts pounded in their ears and cold sweat crawled up their backs and clammed up their hands, both scared for the worst.

It was Danny, yet... not quite. His hair and clothing had somehow inverted colors, his messy, straight black hair turned white and white hazmat suit turned black. And his eyes, when they fluttered open, were now a startling electric green mirroring the portal's color instead of their natural sky blue.

Tucker and Sam were bewildered, questions caught in their throats as they tensely monitored their friend. Danny's unfocused eyes darted back and forth, seeming to not see anything. With a heavy breath, he shut his eyes again, seeming ready to pass out... and passed out of their arms.

More accurately, he passed _through_ their arms, dropping through them like a mirage as he sank into the floor with a yelp. Their eyes all widened in panic, but only Sam reacted fast enough to grab his hand before he completely slipped into the ground, pulling him out with all her might. They collapsed, panting.

"Wh-what is going on?" Danny warbled, looking down at himself. The impossible fall had pumped adrenaline through all three of them and shaken him wide awake.

Tucker shook his head, patting the pale boy's shoulder both in consolation and to innocuously reassure himself that his friend was still solid. "Your guess is as good as ours, man."

Sam carefully helped Danny sit up before registering the sickly green light being cast on them. She turned to stare into the glowing abyss behind them, its thick depths obscuring both the metal tunnel and whatever lay beyond the eerie, swirling entrance. "The portal. You turned it on somehow," she said in awe, taking in every detail of the ethereal sight. After a moment, she whipped back to him and said in concern, "Are you okay, Danny? It sounded like there was a pretty big shock in there, and for some reason I couldn't find your pulse a minute ago."

He blinked at the portal, cogs still creaking slower than usual in his head. It really was on. If the portal was working as intended, then that meant he had probably briefly ended up in the unknown dimension on the other side of it. But if he _had_ really been in the rumored other world, then he hadn't seen any of it, since he'd been blinded from the pain.

Pain. His body.

He patted himself down for injuries, then shook his head. "I dunno what happened in there, and I sorta have a weird buzzy headache, but I think I'm alright." His friends stared in obvious disbelief. "What?"

"So no one's really mentioned this yet, but your hair is, um, white. And your eyes are green, and you're sort of... glowing," pointed out Tucker.

"And did you not see your clothes? Or, y'know, remember you just fell through the floor? Or through _us?_ " Sam added incredulously, cringing at the thought.

Danny took a second to process their words before he stumbled to the lab bathroom and gaped at himself in the sink mirror, forgetting to turn on the light in his hurry. His stomach dropped sickeningly when he saw that his friends weren't kidding. Staring back at him was a reflection he didn't recognize, eerily lit by the fluorescent lights from the lab and the soft white glow somehow coming from his own body.

Spooked, he spun on his heel and mentally replayed everything his friends had said as he rushed back to them. "Wait. Sam, did you say I don't have a pul-" he began, but yelped mid-word as one foot, then another, left the floor and just kept leaving, suspending him helplessly in the air like an astronaut in zero gravity.

His friends' eyes were huge as they ran to him. "No way. Dude, you're flying!" Tucker said excitedly. Fascinated by the sight, he stood watching just out of Danny's reach, despite his protests.

"How is this possible? Are you doing this?" Sam asked as she looked at Danny from every angle and scanned the lab for any wayward equipment that might've caused him to levitate.

Danny flailed his arms around as he slowly lost balance and tilted sideways. "I don't know! Get me down!" he yelled.

As if his words held power, he fell back down to the ground just as suddenly as he'd left it, unceremoniously landing on his side with a surprised grunt.

"What is _happening?!_ " he wailed.

Sam leaned down to check his pulse again, then frowned and took a deep breath before she said, "You got electrocuted by your parents' ghost portal, you're glowing, you fell through solid objects, and you can sorta-maybe fly. And, well, I still couldn't find your pulse. I dunno, Danny, it sorta seems like you're..." she trailed off, gesturing vaguely towards the ominous portal.

He stared blankly at the swirling abyss for a moment before his mind leaped light years to a possibility he felt sick considering. "A _ghost?!_ I can't be a ghost! My parents would kill me!" Danny yelped.

Despite himself, a moment later he sputtered and cracked a half-smile as the immense irony of his words hit him. As they caught onto the dark humor, his friends also stifled laughs and the tension lifted slightly.

Sam's face fell again, still troubled. "But what's happening to you? How can you be alive without a heartbeat? It just doesn't make sense."

"Then... what, am I really dead? Did the portal kill me?" Danny asked, voice cracked and face stricken.

Tucker snorted and waved dismissively. "Alright, guys, I betcha five bucks that dead people don't have a sense of humor or ask their friends if they're dead. You're outta the tunnel of light in my book," he said as he nudged Danny with a grin.

"But what're you gonna do about your parents? They're gonna come back here soon, and judging by your dad's half-grayed head, I don't think you guys stock black hair dye at your house like Sam does," he warned in a more serious tone, well familiar with the Fentons' obsessive work ethic. Ghosts - or rather, hunting ghosts, even if they had never actually seen one - was their life.

Danny froze.

"They can't see me like this," he said quickly and shook his head, flustered. "Wh-what if I do something, y'know, not humanly possible? I can't, they can't know, I can't-"

A bright flash interrupted his panic. The three of them blinked at the large ring of white light that had mysteriously shot out in thin air around his midriff, encircling him. In a split second, it spliced into two identical rings that repelled from each other and disappeared after they completely passed over his entire body. Left behind was Danny as they knew him: black hair, blue eyes, unaltered clothes, and no odd glow.

Danny looked at his white jumpsuit and held up his black-gloved hands in shock, then tentatively touched the dark hair that framed the corner of his vision again."I-I'm normal again?" he gasped. Sam nodded, and he laughed, beyond relieved.

Before his friends could answer, the lab door slammed open and loud footsteps thumped towards them. "-telling you, Maddie, we've got to try again! We almost had it!" yelled a familiar, eager voice. "We just gotta tweak the settings or something!"

A lilting voice answered, "But our calculations were all right, Jack. I don't know what went wrong, it should have worked."

The trio exchanged nervous glances as Danny's parents clunked down the stairs into the lab, still clad in their usual brightly colored hazmat suits. His mom, ever the watchful one, was the first to notice them.

"Kids? What are you doing here? It's not safe," she reprimanded. They couldn't see her expression well due to her full body suit's skin-tight mask and large red protective goggles, but they could feel her frown all the same. They laughed nervously, and Danny stepped forward to offer an answer.

Abruptly, his dad let out a loud "AHA!" and pointed a large gloved hand beyond them with almost comic gusto. "Maddie, the Fenton Ghost Portal! It worked after all! Danny-boy must've gotten it going. Good work, son!" he boomed as he grinned broadly and bounded over to slap the boy on the shoulder.

Maddie paused to stare at the eerie vortex in awe, then broke into a matching smile as she turned back to them. "Danny, is this true? How did you do it?" she asked sweetly, excitement barely contained.

"It, um, lit up after I pushed a button inside it. You guys didn't press the 'on' button, I guess," he shrugged, plastering a reassuring grin on his face.

"It wasn't on?" she repeated as she gazed into the green abyss, dumbfounded by their simple mistake.

Jack slapped himself in the forehead, flabbergasted. "I can't believe I put the switch inside and forgot. Jack Fenton's better than this, I know it," he muttered.

Maddie's attention snapped back to the kids. "Danny, are you alright? You must've been inside when the portal engaged." Her voice dripped with worry.

He waved his hands wildly in denial, still grinning. "No, no, Mom! It took a second to start up, so I got out of there as fast as I could! I-I'm fine!" Tucker and Sam nodded, talking over each other in their eagerness to back him up.

She regarded the flustered teens for a second, then ran over to hug them all. Danny's face flushed as his parents hugged and kissed him, thanking him for saving their invention.

Pushing out of their embrace, Danny and his friends started backing away. "Well, I'm glad we could help get your ghost portal going. We're just gonna go, y'know, do homework and regular kid stuff now, okay?" he said with a small smile, eyebrows creased upwards hopefully. His parents nodded and waved them away, Jack already halfway to the active portal to check it out.

The three took off to Danny's second floor bedroom and shut the door behind them. With Danny in the middle, they all sank onto his unmade bed, shaking a little as they caught their breath.

"You lied to your parents?" Tucker panted.

"What was I supposed to do?! Tell them I got e-electrocuted by their most important invention and now weird stuff is happening to me?" Danny whispered harshly. Tucker grimaced and shook his head, then propped his elbows on his legs as he held his head pensively, eyes closed.

Sam sighed, staring out the room's skylight at the afternoon clouds. "So what now? What if something weird happens again?" she prompted, sounding calmer than she felt.

Danny barked out a nervous laugh as he pondered the possibility, but the unfamiliar tightness of his suit had started to make him feel uncomfortably self-conscious. "I don't know. I feel like I'd wanna disappear outta pure mortification. Anyways, I'm gonna change in here 'cause I saw Jazz was in the bathroom. Don't look, 'kay?"

His friends mumbled affirmatively as he got up, and he wriggled out of the suit, then threw it at the clothes hamper next to his closet, carelessly missing. Nonplussed, he tossed on the nearest pair of clean jeans and one of the many Fenton Works logo-emblazoned t-shirts his parents had pushed onto him over the years. Feeling much better in his normal clothes, he took a running leap and flopped heavily back onto the bed, making them all bounce.

Tucker cracked an eye open to look at him, then gasped when he couldn't.

"Dude. Where'd you go?"

Perplexed, Sam tore her gaze from the sky to look at her friends. To her surprise, Danny was indeed nowhere in sight, yet the unchanged weight balance on the bed and a human-sized dent in the messy blankets implied he was there.

"I'm right here," he said indignantly as he popped back into view, right where he was supposed to be. His friends reflexively jerked back and Tucker banged his head on the wall with a strangled yelp. Danny sat up, brows furrowed. "What?"

Sam took a shaky breath. "I think you can turn invisible, too," she said slowly, standing up to face him. He stared into her purple eyes for a long second, gauging her words.

"I'd ask if you're pulling my leg, but considering what happened five minutes ago, I'm inclined to believe you," he said, laughing nervously again. "But... how? I'm back to normal now, not all glowy like earlier."

Sam pinched the bridge of her nose, her theories boiling down to the same conclusion again and again.

"All the occult books I've read... Intangibility, invisibility, flight. All of those are hallmark abilities of ghosts, Danny, and you just got shocked by a portal that's supposed to connect to the ghost world," she said, leveling her voice.

He grabbed her hand and placed her fingers on the side of his throat like she'd done earlier. "B-but I can feel my heartbeat, see? I can't be... you know! Dead!"

Sam's eyebrows shot up, mind racing. There was definitely a pulse now. Why couldn't she feel one earlier, when he had white hair? And, she realized, why was he so cold back then? His temperature felt fine now, but earlier he was frigid when she touched him, despite having just been electrocuted. Shouldn't an electrical charge have made him warmer, if anything? And what was with his appearance at that time? Did Danny have superpowers now, or were those just lingering effects from the portal shock? Was he really alive, or not? What did that make him? What should they do now?

Sam flopped face-down on the bed next to him, the mounting questions pounding her head. "Nothing makes sense," she groaned into the blankets.

Tucker nudged Danny. "Hey, whether you're alive or dead or have freaky superpowers or whatever, you're still our best friend. Just making that clear," Tucker said lightly, clamping an arm around his shoulders.

Danny smiled back weakly. "Thanks, Tuck, but I'm still alive."

"But you DO seem to have powers now," Sam said, muffled. She rolled onto her side, meeting eyes with the others. "Unless those were just temporary side effects of the ghost portal, I think it gave you some kind of supernatural powers. And... and you have an alternate form of your body, somehow. The glowing version of you with white hair and green eyes, it's your ghost-like self," she said carefully, voice firm and words calculated.

"You mean like a superhero alter ego?!" Tucker exclaimed excitedly.

Danny snorted, brushed Tucker's arm off, and stood up to pace in front of his bed. "I get what you guys are saying. And it sorta makes sense, even if it sounds crazy. But me, a superhero? Powers? I-I'm too normal for that. Too average. Just a regular weakling that gets shoved around by the jocks every day at school. I can't be special. You guys know me," he strained. The haunting reflection of himself in the lab's bathroom mirror creeped into his mind, making him shudder. "And more importantly, the son of ghost hunters definitely, absolutely, positively _cannot_ be a ghost."

He stopped pacing and spun to face the both of them, emphatically clapping a hand onto his chest as he tried to stop the image of glowing eyes and white hair from overwhelming his thoughts.

"I. Am. Alive."

No sooner did he say that than an unexpected flash blinded them again.

In silence, Danny stared his friends down, but their expressions were telling of what had happened. Then, hand still on his chest, he realized with growing dread that something vital seemed to suddenly be missing. he tore his gaze down.

Black suit, white gloves, white boots. White hair fringing the corner of his vision. And the soft white glow seeming to come from his body had returned.

"Uh..."

With urgent speed, Sam bounced off the bed and reached for him.

"...Sam?"

After a few uneasy seconds, her hand retreated and she glanced between him and Tucker.

"Danny," she started, voice high with worry, "right now, you really, really don't have a pulse."

His breath hitched in his throat while Tucker looked wildly between him and Sam in confusion. Sam was right: nothing made sense.

"How?" he croaked. They wracked their minds for answers, but logic only seemed to point to illogical conclusions.

"I don't know, Danny! You're... alive. But you're also a... a ghost. I think. You're both somehow, maybe. The portal must have done something to you during the, um, accident," Sam rushed, at a loss.

Danny growled in frustration. Fear tingled up his back, and the urge to escape the thoughts and fear and possibilities began to overwhelm him.

Before he could process what had happened, his feet had left the ground and he was suspended helplessly in the air again. His friends reached wildly for him, grabbing his arms and lowering him back to the ground.

"You're freezing," Tucker winced as he let go. Sam nodded, concerned.

Danny was shaken, but not shaking. "I'm not cold, though. I feel fine," he insisted.

Taking that as enough reassurance that, at least for now, he was as okay as a conscious person without a heartbeat could be, Sam asked the next most pressing questions she could think of. "Why did you change back to this form? And why did you start floating again?"

He groaned, mentally backtracking as well as he could. "I dunno. I was trying not to think of the way I looked in the lab, but I couldn't get it out of my head. It didn't even look like me, Sam. And then I transformed back to this," he said, waving at himself with a pained expression. "And just now, I wanted to run or escape or something, and then I started floating."

"So basically, you control them, right? The transformations and powers. They respond to what you want to do... sorta. You probably just need more practice to control them," Tucker interjected as he typed everything strange that had happened that afternoon into an encrypted document on his PDA. His programming prowess made him attuned to logical processes, quick to link causes and effects even in real-world situations, so his friends often trusted his judgement.

"They're linked to your thoughts and wishes. That makes sense," Sam said thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "It's like the powers in superhero stuff, they're just part of you now."

Danny frowned as he considered the likelihood of their theory. Given everything impossible that had already happened today, it was worth a shot. If he could actually fly... that might make the other weird stuff worth it. He immediately tested their hypothesis by focusing on the feeling of weightlessness and wanting to escape gravity, since that method made the most sense to him.

After a moment of deep concentration, he levitated off the floor of his own volition, hovering not far above it. His friends reached for him again in alarm, but he held up his hands to stop them.

"I-I guess you guys are right," he said, eyes alight with awe. "I'm flying!"

Tucker scoffed, hiding his own excitement under a thin veil of mock derision. "You're not flying til you start moving, dude. Right now, you're just floating like three inches off the ground," he criticized good-naturedly.

"Party pooper."

With that, Danny carefully leaned forward, perplexed at how to propel himself. After a fruitless attempt at swimming through the air, the old NASA space camp poster on the wall caught his attention. Rockets have fuel and engines. What did he have?

A memory of his mom reading to him as a child sparked in his mind. She regaled him with the tale of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up and fought pirates in a magical land - and who taught other children to fly with a little help of his fairy friend's magic dust. The wonder four-year-old Danny felt had spurred him to aim for NASA, and fantasies of flying in the cosmos still burned strong.

"I just gotta believe, right?" he muttered to himself. He took a deep breath to steel himself, then mentally pushed, willing his body to move forward.

Suddenly, he lurched forward higher in the air. His friends watched warily, ready to try to catch him if need be. Danny wobbled as he shot forward a short distance at a time, going further with each attempt. Soon, he reached the wall on the far side of the room and tapped a hand on it triumphantly before making his way back to where he started.

"Made it," he panted, feeling drained. He sank out of the air, stumbling as his feet hit the floor. The white rings of light popped out and whooshed around him again, leaving a tired but very normal-looking Danny to fall into his friends' arms.

"You alright?" Sam asked, relieved his body temperature felt within average human range again.

He gave her a sluggish thumbs-up. "Still freaked out by this whole thing, but if I can fly, well... I can't complain too much," he laughed.

"You sure you're not gonna tell your parents? This is huge, man. You're like a living scientific breakthrough or something," Tucker said, eyes lighting up. After a brief pause, he amended, "Well, maybe just half-living."

Danny cringed. "Half-dead is better than totally annihilated by your own parents," he stated bleakly.

"They're your parents. Ghost hunters or not, they wouldn't hurt you," reassured Sam.

Fervently shaking his head, Danny insisted, "You don't realize how often they yell they're gonna tear ghosts apart molecule by molecule. It's like their mantra. If I'm really, y'know, a ghost now - even if I'm not entirely one, however that works - then they can't know. They just can't."

Tucker and Sam exchanged mutually worried glances, then nodded uneasily.

"But if things go south for whatever reason..." she warned.

"They can't know," Danny pleaded again.

"We'll have your back," Tucker replied lightly, emphatically patting him on the back.

Sam sighed, defeated. "My goth senses are telling me things will just get more complicated from here on out, guys. At least _I've_ watched enough anime and read enough about supernatural stuff to be genre-savvy enough to know this," she said, wrinkling her nose at them.

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Please. Most that'll happen is that Danny can invisibly peek on the girls' locker room now. And avoid getting pummeled by Dash better, I guess."

Danny raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise, contorting his mouth in an exaggerated O shape as he imagined the possibilities. Sam smacked his and Tucker's arms in quick succession. "No peeking, Danny! Especially not with your powers! You're both better than that," she chided indignantly, pointing accusingly at them.

He winced and rubbed his stinging arm, somehow still startled how strong she was despite the three close-knit years that had passed since they'd met her. "Alright, alright, no peeking. Superhero rules, right? Using my powers for good?"

She folded her arms and nodded approvingly. "That's the idea."

Tucker grinned mischievously. "Okay, though who're you gonna fight? Superheroes always gotta fight crime and help old people cross the street, yeah? And have an evil arch nemesis!" He punched and kicked imaginary enemies with loud whoops and grunts, badly imitating the martial arts he'd seen in movies.

Sam mirrored Tucker's eyeroll back at him while Danny sputtered with laughter at the thought. There was no way any of that would happen, except helping the occasional old person. He wasn't a fighter, and this wasn't a comic book. He was just Danny. An apparently super-powered version of himself now, sure, but still just Danny.

"I can't even really control this stuff yet, guys. And we don't know what happened in the portal, why I'm like this now, or what else might happen. But I'm not cut out for being a superhero," he laughed. "I'm just me."

The grumble of his stomach caught their attention before they could respond, and Tucker's stomach gurgled in chorus. Sam reflexively put her hand on her stomach, startled that she was also starving. They all snickered.

"Meeting adjourned? I think we need a trip to Nasty Burger to bring this day back on schedule," Tucker proposed.

Danny grinned appreciatively. "Race you there? Loser buys us a round of milkshakes."

An idea sparked. He focusing his mind on passing through the floor, unsure if he could do it without transforming. To his glee, it worked, and he dropped through the floor and into the hall below, landing clumsily. His friends gaped at the space he'd occupied just a second ago, then heard him yell at his parents to let them know they were leaving and slam the front door behind him.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Tucker yelled as he flung the bedroom door open, charging after Danny.

Sam shook her head and ran after him, thoughts still heavy but a smile on her face at her friends' antics. She was glad Danny seemed okay, but all the unknowns concerned her. Accident, ghost portal, ghost powers... and perhaps most bewilderingly, Danny's ambiguous alive or dead status. They had a lot to figure out.

After tumbling the same questions around in her head for a while, she sighed. Turning her attention back to the street, she smirked that Danny, while still in the lead, was rapidly losing speed and looked winded as usual. Tucker wasn't much better off, surprising no one.

"You're not gonna win at this pace," she called, taunting her friends. They picked up speed again, desperately eager to avoid the loser penalty.

"Zombie apocalypse survival 101: you only need to run faster than the guy next to you," Danny yelled back at her, panting every few words. "So even if I don't beat you, as long as I beat Tuck, at least I won't lose!"

"What? Don't throw me under the bus like this, I thought we were bros!"

Sam laughed, then lapsed into silence, shutting out the boys' ensuing banter. Usually, she'd be able to run laps around her spindly-legged friends, but today she decided to lag behind, falling into a comfortable jog to continue ruminating in her thoughts. Buying a round of milkshakes was the least she could do to keep the mood up, she figured.

Ahead, Danny gasped for air, not registering how frigid his breath was for a moment when he exhaled.

Too caught up in their race and thoughts, the shadows watching the trio run by went unnoticed.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE**

 _Happy 14th anniversary, Danny Phantom! Whew. Can't believe the series is as old as Danny and I'm as old as Dan now. Spooky._

 _Hope I caught all the inconsistent tenses and Team Phantom's reactions were believable, oof. How'd the story flow and the chapter length feel? And who (or what) do you think are watching Danny and his friends? Drop a review and lemme know!_

 **Updates will likely be every 2-3 weeks** _, crossposted to AO3 and Wattpad (AO3 version most recommended, seriously). But if this story is ever dead for more than a month (or you just wanna see my other art), then send DP memes and/or yell at me on Twitter or whatever_ _. You can also tag relevant content with_ **#DPboneapptheteethfic** _for me and other readers to find_ _._

 _See you again soon!_

* * *

 **SuperSarcosmic**

AO3・Wattpad・Twitter・Tumblr・Deviantart・Facebook・etc.


	2. Algor Mortis

**QUICK NOTE**

 _This chapter has cover art, hopefully FFN lets_ one _of these links work: Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter [Twitter link TBA] Alternatively, read this on AO3 or WP!_

 _Casual reminders: constructive criticism and fact/grammar corrections are encouraged, and you can tag relevant content with_ **#DPboneapptheteethfic** _for me and other readers to find! And, uh, a beta would be cool. [insert A-OK hand emoji]_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2**

 **Algor Mortis**

Reputably, Nasty Burger was where students came to grab a bite and hang out, whereas dropouts came to grab an apron and burn out. Like most fast food restaurants, it generally wasn't touted as a particularly healthy place. But in recent years, Amity Park locations had gained the bragging rights to having spearheaded the chain's vegan offerings - courtesy of the incessant lobbying led by a certain teenager.

It was into one of these early adoptee Nasty Burgers that the infamous teen activist herself trailed after her friends, each out of breath but in good spirits.

"I win," Tucker wheezed.

With a shaky hand, he ripped his red beret off and used it to fan himself while they queued up to place their orders. He grinned at Sam, who, to his private frustration, was somehow still breathing more evenly than he and Danny could possibly manage.

"And you…"

"Lose. I know. Round of shakes on me, but it's not my fault if you get a stomach ache from it," she said flatly. Despite her tone, there was a hint of a repressed smile as she rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

Tucker and Danny high-fived each other, grins childishly triumphant. Their shared perception of being generally untalented, coupled with years of enduring school bullies physically far stronger than they, had taught them to take their precious few victories wherever they could. That occasionally even meant versus their own best friends, though they knew it was usually all in good fun.

"I can't believe we ran all the way here," Danny groaned. "My legs are jelly."

Tucker patted him on the back. "You're telling me. These stunning legs weren't made for anything longer than treks to the fridge," he said sympathetically, flourishing a hand at his own wobbling legs.

Sam snorted quietly and pursed her lips in an attempt to not to bring up the fact that by the end of the race, they'd actually barely jogged faster than some of the athleisure-clad grandmas power-walking along. Though it was plenty of ammo to needle them with, she figured she could be hard on them another day. After the freaky lab accident earlier, she felt it was only right to let Danny off the hook today - and Tucker, by proxy.

The sweaty trio reached the front of the line and placed their usual orders. On an impulse, Sam stepped forward to pay for all their meals instead of just the milkshake penalty, to which the boys had no objections and high-fived again. The two thanked her and jokingly hailed her as their savior as they all plopped into a secluded corner booth to await their food.

"You're sure being a good loser today, O Benevolent One," Danny teased, lightly jabbing her in the side with his elbow.

Sam shoved him back, scoffing. "You guys try running in steel-toed boots. They're no gym shoes," she said wryly, a subtle attempt to spare her notably less fit friends their meager dignity.

After a pause, her eyebrows knit together.

"Hey, are you really okay, Danny? Shouldn't we have called a doctor or something?" she asked in a more somber tone, common sense belatedly nagging at her.

In response, he sat straight-backed in the booth seat with a prim expression and threw a hand against his ear, thumb and pinky extended in imitation of a phone. "911, what's your emergency?" he said in falsetto, mimicking a female emergency operator.

Switching hands as he slouched forward, he sarcastically continued in his own voice, "Yeah, so I got in an accident in my parents' ghost portal, and now I'm falling through solid objects."

Switching back to his other hand and the high-pitched voice, Danny replied to himself in mock alarm, "Oh no! Hold on, sir, we'll be right over to cart you off to a loony bin!" He theatrically hung up his imaginary phone on the table, then threw his arms up in an exaggerated shrug and stared pointedly at Sam.

She sighed in defeat, thoughts heavy. His fears were valid. Exorcisms, witch hunts, religious executions. Historically, humans feared what they didn't know, and prosecuted those they deemed threats - particularly in the case of supernatural phenomena.

This only added to the creeping guilt she felt from being the one to suggest checking out the portal, thus indirectly causing the accident. Danny might be acting fine and healthy right now, sure. But it was undeniable that the portal shock had changed him in ways still unknown and extents yet undefined, and that was frightening.

Shaking her head, Sam refocused on the world around her and flicked her eyes back to the exasperated Danny.

"I don't think they'd cart you off. Let's be real, even if they wanted to, I'm pretty sure they've gotta do a full mental assessment or prove you're a threat to yourself or others before they can do anything like that," she said, rhythmically drumming her fingers on the table a few times. Shifting tone, she corrected firmly, "Anyways, it's 'psychiatric hospital,' not 'loony bin.'"

"Not like it'll matter to me once I'm thrown into one," Danny retorted.

Then his eyes grew wide. "Hang on, I could just walk out through the walls," he said in awe. Tucker snickered at the thought, its dark plausibility aside.

The three moved onto more mundane subjects, idly passing time til their food was ready. Once it was, they each dug in eagerly, Danny reaching for his chocolate shake and fries first, Tucker wolfing down his no-veggies cheeseburger, and Sam ripping into her all-veggies tofu-chickpea burger.

Their comfortable silence, punctuated with hungry munching, didn't last long.

Leaning back on the padded seat, Tucker rubbed his belly. "Best baby: food baby," he declared, sighing contentedly. He watched with serene, half-lidded eyes as the others demolished their meals at a more reasonable pace.

Sam finished next, followed shortly by Danny. He scraped his last fry into the dregs of his milkshake, downing it with a flourish.

"Ready to head back and actually do that homework?" he asked resignedly, edging out of the booth. The others nodded with mutually grim expressions, then took care of their waste and food trays before heading outside.

They took their time walking back, soaking in the last of the afternoon sun's warmth and each other's company.

A few blocks away, Danny stopped short, gasping involuntarily. The others turned to look at him, curious.

"What's wrong?" Tucker asked.

"Wh-why did it get so cold just now?" Danny shuddered, hugging his bare lower arms to himself and squinting at the cloudless sky. The others, however, just stared blankly at him as he shivered. "Don't you feel it?" he asked, staring back.

As he usually did, Tucker had opted to wear a long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants in his lazy effort to always be prepared for light chills and carry all his gadgets. On the other hand, Sam had on little more than a dark crop top, short skirt, and spiderweb leggings that seemed as thin as her patience with society. Danny looked her up and down, concerned how she, despite being the one most exposed to the elements, hadn't even noticed the bizarre cold wave.

His friends shook their heads. "You alright? Maybe we really should get you looked at," Sam began, reaching for his forehead to check for a fever.

Before she could make contact, a startled expression flashed across her face and paused her hand. A sudden chill, now tangible to all of them, had descended on the deserted side street, and the back of their necks prickled with the sensation of being watched. They looked around warily, spooked.

"Who's there?" Danny called out, an unsettling fear knotting his stomach. Well aware of how small and unintimidating he was, he nonetheless stepped protectively in front of his friends as he scanned the narrow street and alleyways.

Something bright moving in the dark alley across from them caught his eye. He rapidly blinked several times in disbelief, hoping he'd seen wrong.

As the thing came clearly into view, he gasped again and instinctively took a step back, scraping the sole of his shoe sharply against the sidewalk. The sound alerted Sam and Tucker to the threat, and their faces contorted in terror as they followed his line of sight. Time slowed enough for them to absorb the details of the monstrous thing stalking closer, and their blood ran cold, leaving them rooted in their tracks.

A glowing, almost fluorescent green creature floated towards them, nearly the size of a man but entirely limbless. It was vaguely reminiscent of the colorful blob-like enemies from the Snack-Man arcade games they'd played when they were younger. But this thing, similar in shape though it was, had slitted red eyes instead of wide white ones, a body that seemed somehow both solid and melting at the same time, and snarled at them with a mouth that had too many fangs. And most importantly, it wasn't a video game character.

It was real, it was menacing, and it was getting closer.

Like a cheetah closing in, the creature sailed across the street in a heartbeat and lunged at them with eager jaws.

"No!" Danny screamed, jolted into action by the imminent threat.

He jumped into its path and managed to shove it away with both hands, narrowly avoiding its snapping mouth but getting its glowing ooze stuck to his hands upon contact. Disgusted, he attempted to shake the almost slime-like goop off as he backed away, keeping an eye on the creature. It, in return, kept its attention locked on him, ready to pounce again.

"Get away from us!"

Sam dashed forward and brazenly kicked the creature, fully intending to incapacitate it.

Instead, she grunted in surprise as her steel-toed boot sunk straight through its body with no resistance, only feeling an ethereal chill permeating her leg as it passed through.

For a moment, she was the one stunned. Her shin slammed almost full-force into a fire hydrant that she hadn't noticed was just beyond the creature, sending a shock of pain up her leg. As she stumbled backwards, wincing, the creature's searing green body conjured an image of the active ghost portal from earlier into her head, and it dawned on her that the colors were eerily similar.

In abstract leaps, her mind connected the dots.

"Guys, we gotta run! It's a ghost!"

She spun on her heel and raced away, ignoring her throbbing leg. Without question, the others took off after her, the hostility following them setting their hair on end.

They had only covered a short distance when Danny fell with a yelp. Turning in alarm, the others saw that his left leg had apparently sunken past his knee into the sidewalk by no will of his own, throwing him off-balance onto the concrete.

He frantically attempted to scramble to his feet, but try as he did, his leg refused to become solid again. It merely passed through the ground again and again, each time making his gut lurch like he'd missed a stair.

Seizing its chance, the creature caught up to them and lunged at its prone target again. With no luck getting up, at the last second, Danny awkwardly rolled out of its path.

But he had acted too slow. He yelped in pain again as the creature snagged its fangs through his jeans and scraped his other leg, not quite close enough to take a proper bite.

"Why is it only attacking Danny?!" Tucker yelled as he grabbed his friend's arms and dragged him out of the way as fast as he could.

Staring at his leg still dangling in the ground, the spark of an idea abruptly made Danny wrestle himself out of Tucker's grip.

"Dude, we don't got time for this!"

"Wait! If it's a ghost," Danny said, more thinking out loud than speaking to anyone in particular, "then I... I'm going ghost!"

The others could only watch as he closed his eyes and searched within himself, desperately trying to summon the white rings of light again.

To his immense relief, they burst into existence with little effort, washing over his body to reveal his softly glowing ghost form. He brushed his now-white fringe out of his eyes and carefully rose off the ground, squaring up in the air against the startled creature.

"Come take a bite outta me now, punk!" he called, sounding far cockier than he felt.

As if it understood, it lunged, aiming for his head but latching onto his shoulder as he dodged too slow again. He screamed, pained and panicking.

"Let go of me!" he yelled, desperately trying to pry it off.

But despite its almost melting appearance, the creature's hold was solid, and its wide jaws threatened to have taken in his head whole if it hadn't missed. With a wild, guttural growl, it bit down harder and tensed in a way that made clear to Danny that it was about to violently twist away and rip a chunk of him out.

"I said, let... go!"

Without warning, his unnaturally green eyes seemed to flash brighter as he felt a channel of energy pass from the center of his chest and through his arms, tingling like a static charge. Acid green beams shot like lasers out of his palms, striking the creature and startling both of them. It released him and recoiled, hissing in pain.

Dumbfounded, Danny stared at his tingling palms for a moment. They looked normal now, but he was suddenly acutely aware of a well of energy within himself, heavily concentrated in his chest. The energy steadily coursed throughout his being in a sensation reminiscent of the flow of blood, but without the intermittent pulse of a heartbeat.

Whatever it was he just did, Danny was certain he could do it again. Gathering his courage as he glared at the creature, he put on a tough front and puffed up his chest like he'd seen countless Saturday morning cartoon superheroes do.

"Alright, get a taste of this!" he yelled, throwing a hand in front of himself and instinctively firing another blast. It hit the creature squarely, leaving a sizzling burn that made it roar. Behind, he heard Tucker and Sam cheering him on, filling him with real confidence that made him grin in earnest.

"Don't like it, huh, snaggletooth?!" he taunted. "Too bad! We're serving up seconds, and guess what? I'm not on the menu!" With surprising ease, he summoned more energy to his palms and aimed again.

But a long second passed, and his hands just glowed bright green as they held onto the charge, refusing to release it. He faltered, hoping the creature wouldn't notice, and words tumbled out of his mouth without thinking.

"Last chance! Leave us alone, or you're toast!" he bluffed.

The weakened creature regarded him briefly with apparent anger and apprehension, seeming to weigh its options.

With a decisive hiss, it turned on its tail and flew off above the buildings, out of sight within seconds. In its absence, the temperature began to rise back to normal.

"And stay outta my restaurant!" he yelled nonsensically, shaking his fist after it in a comic fashion.

Suddenly drained, Danny sank to the ground and collapsed. The twin white rings of light flashed around him unbidden, forcing him to turn back to normal.

His friends surrounded him, shaken but thankfully unharmed.

"Dude, are you okay?!"

Danny grinned weakly. "Well, I just got chomped by a floating monster ghost thing, and I haven't had my tetanus shot in a while. But all things considered, I'm pretty okay."

Shuddering involuntarily at the thought of getting a shot, Tucker muttered, "Ghost tetanus. Just what we need."

Spotting several pinpricks of color that had started seeping through Danny's t-shirt, Tucker jerked his head at his shoulder. "How's the damage?"

"Not a clue. Adrenaline's a hell of a drug," he laughed.

With his uninjured arm, Danny reached up and stretched his shirt collar open to offer a view. An arc of large, bleeding punctures lined both sides of his left shoulder and upper arm, almost reaching his neck. It was surprisingly more shallow and bleeding less than they'd anticipated, but the wounds were each covered in a strange, bright green liquid.

"Oh. That's freaky," Danny said, bewildered. He gingerly wiped some off and observed it, rubbing it between his fingers.

"What's the green stuff? Is it that ghost's spit?" Sam asked, peering at the bite.

"Ew, hope not." Curious, Danny took a whiff, then grimaced. "It smells kinda sour, but weirdly… not terrible? Dunno what to make of that. And it's thicker than my blood is, sorta like cheap pancake syrup."

"You said it smells good?" Tucker leaned in with eyes closed and sniffed deeply.

Halfway through, he made a strangled noise and his eyes shot open. In revulsion, he coughed and sputtered loudly as he took a step back. "Bleargh! Ughh! That's _gross_ , man, what are you talking about?!"

"I didn't exactly say _good_ , just not terrible!"

Sam sniffed it cautiously, but she, too, wrinkled her nose at it. "Um, yeah. Besides all the blood, the green stuff's kinda strong and almost makes my head hurt to smell much of."

Perplexed, Danny smelled it again. "It smells fine to me. Who knows what this stuff is, though."

Tucker laughed nervously. "That bite better not get infected or something weird. Maybe you'll become a zombie or something." He paused. "Wait. Can ghosts even become zombies?"

"Oh my God, Tucker."

Choosing to ignore him, the others resumed checking their injuries. After a short assessment, it appeared that Sam's leg wasn't bruising too bad from kicking the fire hydrant, and Tucker was just tired. Danny, meanwhile, had otherwise only sustained a bruised knee and several shallow parallel scrapes on his shin that seemed likely to stop bleeding soon on their own.

Mutually, they agreed that it was great the incident hadn't gone worse. But the creature's likely ghostly identity and the strange green stuff in Danny's shoulder wound kept them uneasy.

"I'm sorry we were useless, man." Tucker clenched his jaw as he helped Danny up. "A bro's supposed to be there for his bros."

Grinning wryly, Danny replied, "S'alright, Tuck. Unless it was in the fine print, I don't think bro code covers supernatural attacks." Tucker shrugged helplessly, not quite conceding.

"Speaking of supernatural, those energy attacks were awesome, like out of an anime or something! I didn't know you could do that," Sam said enthusiastically, trying to diffuse the tense mood.

"Neither did I," Danny laughed, clamping a hand on his shoulder to stop the bleeding. "Am I an anime protagonist now?"

"Might as well be," she snickered. "Honestly, if there was a show about some superpowered ghost kid fighting spooky baddies, I'd watch it."

Danny began to laugh, but suddenly gave a start. Her words had clicked with a worry that had been pushed to the back of his mind, and he whipped around, anxiously scanning all the nearby windows. "Guys, we're in a residential area. What if someone was watching the fight? Or worse, got it on video?" he asked, getting antsy.

Looking around, Sam shook her head. "I didn't see anyone this whole time. This side street's pretty small, and at this hour, a lot of people are still coming home from work or busy with school clubs and stuff. We should be fine," she reasoned.

As he surveyed the area, Tucker nodded. "If anyone was watching, we probably would've noticed by now."

"But there were like, actual lasers shooting out of my hands? And we were so loud-"

A sudden long, low growl interrupted Danny's fretting, growing in volume for several seconds before petering out. They all stared at him, realizing the sound had come from his stomach.

Tucker burst into laughter. "Nice."

"I just ate, you stop that," Danny said to his stomach, frowning.

"Chill, you're just digesting," Tucker reassured. He thrust his own full belly out and proudly clapped a hand on it with a solid thump. "Trust me, I know all the sounds a stomach makes. Some even call me the Stomach Whisperer."

"Uh-huh. A likely diagnosis, I'll give ya that, but your title is debatable."

Before Tucker could respond, Sam sighed in mock exasperation and gave him a push on the shoulder. "Come on, dorks. Let's hurry back and take care of that bite before that thing comes back for seconds," she said, shoving them along impatiently.

The boys readily agreed, and the group set off as fast as they could manage.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE**

 _wOW, this is late. Sorry! Been getting ready to start doing artist alleys at anime conventions and, uh, playing multiplayer Stardew since the beta's out now. :'^) But thank you for the support thus far!_

 _The original ch2 got cut in two cuz it was running like 6k words, but then I got stuck fleshing out this half and doing the cover art. The chapter art's aight now (please check out the WIP compilation on my tumblr, I'm actually p proud how much I learned doing this, haha) but the chapter itself could be better. [grimaces] If you agree, voice your dissent! If not, uhh. Rad. Voice that, too._

 _Ch3's pretty far along, just needs more editing and hopefully chapter art. See ya again sooner than last time, haha!_

* * *

 **SuperSarcosmic**

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